Child Abuse in Sweden

by Joan E. Durrant, Ph.D.

For a number of years, various media have carried reports
stating that child abuse has increased in Sweden since the passage
of the 1979 corporal punishment ban. This statement, which was
recently given new life in the Canadian Charter Challenge to
Section 43 of the Criminal Code, is completely erroneous. All
available evidence indicates that Sweden has been extremely
successful in reducing rates of child physical abuse over the past
few decades and that reduction has been maintained since the
passage of the corporal punishment ban. The purpose of this brief
report is to disseminate accurate information on this issue.

1. Reporting Rates vs. Rates of Actual Abuse

The claim that child abuse has increased in Sweden is primarily
based on misinterpretation of assault report statistics. It is the
case that reporting of child physical assault has increased in
Sweden since the 1970s - as it has in every nation that has raised
awareness of the issue of child abuse. Reporting rates are by no
means equivalent to rates of actual abuse. They are sharp
reflections of, and strongly tied to shifts in public awareness.

For example, in the early 1960s, it was estimated that about
300 children were being maltreated in the U.S. By 1990, the U.S.
Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect had officially recorded
2.4 million reported cases. By 1993, they had recorded almost 3
million cases. It is highly unlikely that actual child
maltreatment increased by a factor of 10,000 in that period. It is
also highly unlikely that only 300 children were maltreated in the
U.S. in the early 1960s.

It is a well-known fact that when mandatory reporting laws,
public education campaigns, and other measures are implemented to
increase awareness, reporting will increase. This is the goal of
such measures. The Swedish reporting figures have been cited as if
they are actual rates of abuse, which they are not.

The Swedish National Crime Prevention Council examined 434
cases of assaults on young children within the family that were
reported to the police in 1990 (all cases) and 1997 (every other
case). It was found that the proportion of cases involving serious
injuries sustained by children in this age range had decreased
substantially. The majority of reported assaults result in minor
injuries or no injuries at all. On the basis of an extensive
analysis of the data, the National Crime Prevention Council
concluded that there has been an increase in the propensity to
report cases of assault on young children, and that it is this
increase that is responsible for most, if not all, of the rise in
the number of such offenses reported to the police. (Nilsson,
2000, p. 68).

2. Prevalence of Child Physical Assault Across Time

Studies conducted at various points in time demonstrate that
the prevalence, frequency and harshness of assaults against
children have declined dramatically in Sweden over the last two
generations. Substantial proportions of women who became mothers
in the 1950s struck their children at least weekly (e.g., 55% of
mothers of 4-year-old daughters; 20% of mothers of 8-year-old
sons). (Stattin et al., 1995). Among 3- to 5-year-old children of
that generation, implements were used by 13% of mothers (Stattin
et al.,1995).

In contrast, 86% of youth who were born in the 1980s report
never having been physically punished (Janson, 2001). Of those who
were, the vast majority experienced it no more than once or twice
in their childhoods (SCB, 1996). Virtually no children are hit
with implements in Sweden today.

It is important to note that legislative reform began many
decades ago in Sweden. The corporal punishment ban was the end,
not the beginning, of legal changes in that country. Most notably,
the provision excusing parents who caused minor injuries to their
children through physical punishment was repealed from the Swedish
Penal Code in 1957. The explicit ban on physical punishment was
implemented 22 years later.

3. Child Abuse Fatalities

The incidence of homicides of children under the age of 5 can
provide an estimate of child abuse mortality, as it is these
children who are most vulnerable to fatal injury and the
contribution of other forms of external violence is minimized
among this age group. Between 1975 and 2000, the average annual
number of homicides of children aged 0 to 4 in Sweden was 4. The
average incidence between 1995 and 2000 (2.8) was lower than that
between 1975 and 1980 (4.0) - despite population growth.

The World Health Organization (2002) provides homicide
incidence figures for children aged 0 to 4 in Sweden (1996),
Canada (1997) and the United States (1998).1
These figures are:

Sweden: 3; Canada: 24; United States: 723

(Canada's population is approximately 3 times larger than
Sweden's. The U.S. population is approximately 20 times larger
than Sweden's.)

Child homicides attributable specifically to physical abuse
(excluding homicide-suicides, neonaticide and postnatal
depression) are virtually non-existent in Sweden. Between 1976 and
2003 a total of 4 children died in Sweden as a result of physical
abuse.

1. It is important to note that Sweden's law was
intended to affirm children's rights; it was not expected to end
all abuse of children for all time. North American assault laws
have not eliminated assaults against adults, yet we recognize
their importance in setting a standard of non-violence for the
society, sending a clear message, and affording protection to
those who have been harmed. This was the fundamental intent of
Sweden's corporal punishment ban.

2. Legislative reform in Sweden began in 1928, when
corporal punishment was forbidden in secondary schools. It was
1957 when the legal defense of reasonable correction was repealed
from Sweden's Penal Code. The ban must be viewed within its
historical context to be understood.

3. Since Sweden passed its ban on corporal punishment in
1979, 22 other nations have followed:

(In addition, the Supreme Courts of Italy and Nepal have ruled
that corporal punishment is unlawful.) The purpose of these bans
is to explicitly recognize children's rights to protection under
the law - the same rights that adults take for granted.

1 Rates per population
are not available for Sweden and Canada due to their low incidence.
Incidence rates are presented here for the most recent years for which data
were available in the WHO World Report on Violence and Health (2002).

Joan E. Durrant, Ph.D., is a Child-Clinical Psychologist
and Professor in the Department of Family Social Sciences at the
University of Manitoba. She is an internationally recognized expert on the
Swedish ban. Over the past decade, she has conducted extensive research on
this law and has lived in Sweden for extended periods to gain a full
understanding of its history, implementation and effects.